The Liberals are taking steps to halt debate on their flagship anti-hate bill in committee to end a prolonged Conservative filibuster on removing a religious exemption to some hate speech laws. Conservatives have said they have been inundated with expressions of concern from religious leaders who fear Bill C-9 would limit religious freedom if it becomes law. But the Liberals...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor should be removed from the royal line of succession for his "deplorable" actions. Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Carney says the actions that have caused him to be stripped of his royal titles "necessitate" his removal from the line of succession.
New polling shows just under half of Canadians support the idea, but there are costs. Since taking office, Prime Minister Mark Carney has made his desire to cut Canada's economic dependence on the United States crystal clear. And along the way, he's referenced Europe as a top destination for Canadian goods. "As the most European of the non-European countries, Canada...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada has not yet received requests from Persian Gulf states for military aid to help them defend against attacks from Iran. And, he suggested, these requests might not arrive. The Prime Minister spoke to journalists in Tokyo near the end of a two-day visit to Japan. Earlier this week, Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff...
Within hours of the US and Israeli attack on Iran and the assassination of that country's leader, Mark Carney was out with his initial thoughts on the conflict. Since then there's been some clarification on what he meant but there's also been some concern in Liberal circles. Chantal and Bruce have their thoughts on this and a lot more on...
A new Liaison Strategies survey reveals that while the Progressive Conservatives maintain a narrow lead in voter intent, opposition leaders and potential Liberal leadership candidates are battling significant name-recognition challenges across the province. "The ballot remains competitive, but the favourability numbers suggest that many voters are still getting to know the alternatives to the current government," said David Valentin, principal...
Less than a year after the 2025 federal election, the minority Liberal government led by Mark Carney continues to strengthen its position in public opinion. As the Prime Minister Carney advances diplomatic initiatives on the international stage and works to stabilize the economic climate at home, the latest Léger data shows a continued rise in both satisfaction and approval ratings...
The clearest attempt at a line of demarcation during Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's speech on Canada-United States relations was an apparent rejoinder to Prime Minister Mark Carney's insistence that a "rupture" has occurred. Quoting a John F. Kennedy hymn about the geography, history, economics and necessity that have brought Canada and the U.S. ever closer, Poilievre said the former president's...
TOKYO -- While there should be "debate" in Canada about a social media ban for children, Prime Minister Mark Carney says he has not made up his own mind on the issue yet.
One year into the trade war, Canadians are feeling more patriotic and more convinced the United States is a worse place under Donald Trump. And as the president dangles the fate of North American free trade above a wood chipper, a split has emerged between business leaders worried about bottom lines and Canadians who are simply over the president’s provocations...
This week, the world will converge in Toronto for the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention, the largest mining conference in the world. At a moment defined by geopolitical instability, fractured supply chains, and surging demand for critical minerals, Ontario is emerging as the world’s reliable partner.
More than two decades ago, the United States invited Canada to join in a new Middle Eastern misadventure. The invitation was premised on a big lie about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien declined to participate. It’s not that he foresaw the disaster to come — but he had a team of good advisers, as...
I’ve covered a few wars, in the Balkans and the Middle East, and I’ve seen plenty of military officers (including senior Americans) explain how things are unfolding on the battlefield. In my experience they’re invariably professional, cool and calm. What they’re not is what the U.S. “secretary of war,” Pete Hegseth, displayed this week in a couple of briefings on...
Liberals leading in most parts of the country and in every demographic group. When you hear that Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives don’t want an election anytime soon, it might be due to the polling.
Let’s peek in on Mark Carney’s Iran war foreign-policy update, beamed to us all the way from Australia. Mr. Carney supported U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in a statement issued Saturday, and he still does, now in a different way, because the U.S and Israel probably did not act in keeping with international law, which is unfortunately part of...
Few decisions are more important for a Canadian prime minister than whether to support the United States on matters of war and peace. With such decisions, legacies can be made and unmade. Jean Chrétien offers a prime example. He’s been dining out on his refusal to join George W. Bush’s coalition of the willing in the Iraq war for decades...
No one will accuse Mark Carney of being a populist politician. But as he nears the one-year mark as prime minister, we’ve been getting some insights into how Carney is juggling the personal relations he has to manage on the world stage and also at home. It isn’t often that politicians go into that kind of detail, so Carney’s lessons...
In almost any context, one of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s major problems — and it’s one that he inherited, in fairness to him — is the state of the Canadian Armed Forces. Our military is too small to do all the jobs we need it to do. It lacks critical capabilities necessary for survival on the modern battlefield. Manpower shortages...
After a humiliating election defeat, multiple defections from his caucus and a widening lead in the polls for Mark Carney’s Liberals, Pierre Poilievre has finally decided to make some changes. He debuted the new look at a recent speech at the Economic Club of Canada, one in which he cited the writings of Marcus Aurelius, name-checked Pierre Trudeau in a...
One of the many things that could be said of the rules-based world order is that it was designed so that countries — including middle powers — would not have to rely on their wits, in the manner of a Hobbesian geopolitical Hunger Games, to survive in the face of hegemonic aggression. “The world will always be driven by great...
I begin writing today with a quotation from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. In a press conference Monday morning, Hegseth celebrated Israel and its strikes alongside the U.S., while he condemned “so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force.” In explaining the Trump doctrine of military...
The premier won’t have time to turn the economy around as the prospect of an election this year looms large. Spare a moment, if you will, for British Columbia Premier David Eby. Not long ago, the former Vancouver lawyer seemed to have it in the bag. He inherited the premiership and a budget surplus of $5.7-billion from the popular John...
Pierre Poilievre, leader of His Majesty’s loyal opposition, is visiting the King’s home turf this week, where he gave a keynote speech at Margaret Thatcher’s think tank of choice. The visit comes at a good time for Poilievre to open his ears as well as his mouth. For the United Kingdom is deep into a period of political turmoil, one...
In a stunning showdown last week between the Trump administration and frontier AI company Anthropic, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanded that Anthropic allow its AI models to be used for “any lawful purpose,” without any restrictions. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused and laid out the company’s two red lines for its models’ usage by the US government: barring...
When president George H.W. Bush went to war against Iraq in 1991, he sought and won the consent of the Congress of the United States. Resolutions authorizing military force passed the House, by a margin of 250 to 183, and the Senate, 52-47. Mr. Bush had earlier secured the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 678. The cause was...
Back at the end of November when Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Danielle Smith signed their memorandum of understanding (MOU), it was presented as the best of all possible worlds: Canada would get a new oil pipeline and reduced carbon emissions.
Canadian Forces exchange officers working with the U.S. military were “very likely” involved at some level in planning the weekend strikes on Iran, a former Canada major-general has warned. If true, this should raise alarm bells for Canadians because it means Ottawa’s insistence that Canada is “not involved” in this operation is not just implausible, it’s misleading.
RIP Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, we hardly knew you. As Prime Minister Mark Carney alights in Australia this week, fresh from a trade mission to India, the basic premise of the strategy — “to seize opportunities in the national interest of Canadians, while defending the values they hold dear” — has been junked in favour of realpolitik: doing business with countries...
Mark Carney may have thought he dodged a bullet when he wordsmithed Canada’s position on the latest U.S.‑Israeli assault on Iran, Operation Epic Fury. “Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security,” Carney said in a written statement released jointly with Foreign...
Mark Carney left on a trip to India last Thursday but there has simply been no time to field reporters’ queries. The Prime Minister cancelled the press conference scheduled for Monday, when embarrassing questions were to be posed, because his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ran long and his flight to Australia couldn’t be delayed and well, there...
In politics it’s usually best to be as clear as you can. But there are times when clarity will get you in trouble for no particularly good reason. That’s when it’s smarter to fuzz things up a bit. On India and Iran, Mark Carney has been both clear and fuzzy over the past few days. The problem is he’s been...
Ottawa and Alberta have reached a prospective deal that they say will see major projects be approved more efficiently. In a joint announcement Friday the two governments said the deal will bring a "one project, one review" approach to addressing the broader impacts of these projects, including on the environment. A draft version of the deal says projects that fall...
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc sat down with President Donald Trump's trade czar in Washington on Friday as Ottawa continued preparations for a review of the critical continental trade pact. LeBlanc's office said the meeting with United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer included discussions of the upcoming mandatory review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known as CUSMA, as well...
The United States and Israel do not have a "blank cheque" in their bombing campaign in Iran, and are still bound by international law, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said on Friday, as the war in the Middle East approaches the seven-day mark.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Friday a chartered flight is set to take 180 Canadians fleeing the Middle East war zone from Dubai to Istanbul on Saturday. Anand said the flight will operate on a cost-recovery basis. The government has also block-booked about 50 seats each on a few Air Arabia flights for Canadians travelling from Dubai to Istanbul.
The Trump administration is confronting mounting discontent from allies in the Persian Gulf who have complained they were not given adequate time to prepare for the torrent of Iranian drones and missiles bombarding their countries in retaliation for strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel. Officials from two Gulf countries said their governments were disappointed in the way the U.S...
Ottawa has soft-launched a promised program to transition current work permit holders to permanent residence, as soaring numbers of migrants are running out of status in Canada, says Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab.
Ottawa real estate watchers are calling on the federal government to be more clear about its workspace needs as public servants prepare to spend more time in the office. Landlords and office brokers want to know whether the federal government is going to need more space to accommodate ramped-up return-to-office plans after years of stated plans to consolidate its office...
PM meets with his Japanese counterpart, automakers while in Tokyo for a day Prime Minister Mark Carney inked a series of agreements with his Japanese counterpart Friday designed to expand and “modernize” the bilateral relationship as he continues his push to develop deeper ties to like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific — now that the Canada-U.S. relationship is on shaky ground...
MPs have reservations about PM's initial statement supporting U.S.-Israel strikes. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is set to brief Liberal MPs on Friday morning about the government's position on the war that has now engulfed Iran and surrounding countries in the Middle East, after some both privately and publicly raised concerns about Prime Minister Mark Carney's initial statement regarding the...
Canada's defence chief Gen. Jennie Carignan said allies are in talks about possibly helping Persian Gulf states defend themselves against bombing from Iran. Speaking to reporters at a defence and security conference in Ottawa Thursday, Carignan said a meeting is set for early Friday morning to discuss such a proposal among allied militaries and the Canadian Armed Forces would present...
Negotiations to add digital trade provisions begin Thursday. As relations with the Trump administration remain fraught and uncertain, trade ministers from Canada and the European Union are set to sign on to a series of improvements to their bilateral trade agreement. Maroš Šefčovič, the European Union commissioner for trade and economic security, will join International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu in...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed to Japan for a brief visit to one of Canada's closest partner countries as he wraps up a trip across the Indo-Pacific. "The trip is long overdue, given how significant Japan is as a partner for us in the region," Asia Pacific Foundation vice-president Vina Nadjibulla said in a recent interview. Japan is the...
The commander of Canada’s Navy says a mixed submarine fleet would be “more complicated” to operate despite reports that the government is considering splitting the multibillion-dollar contract for 12 new vessels.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is set to meet President Donald Trump's trade czar in Washington on Friday, a day after the United States announced it was launching bilateral discussions with Mexico on the review of the continental trade pact. LeBlanc's office said he will be meeting with United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to discuss the upcoming mandatory review...
The Conservatives are calling for a parliamentary debate before any sort of Canadian military deployment in the ongoing war in Iran, after Prime Minister Mark Carney said such a deployment is possible. Conservative defence critic James Bezan says Parliament should have the final say on whether Canada deploys troops in a conflict and accuses Carney of being "all over the...
A study released by the Montreal Economic Institute estimates the federal government’s “Buy Canadian” policy could increase the cost of large infrastructure projects by more than $12 billion per year. The study states that, among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, total expenditures on public procurement accounted for 12.9 per cent of gross domestic product in 2021.
Canada's secretary of state for defence procurement says the government is planning to choose just one company to build the country's next fleet of submarines. Stephen Fuhr says the Canadian position has not changed, despite media reports this week suggesting the government might split the contract. Two companies are in the final stages of a heated competition for a multi-billion...
Rajan Arora is no stranger to trade turmoil between Canada and the US. Just two days after taking over a small steel-producing firm in southern Ontario in 2018, President Donald Trump slapped 25% tariffs on the metal. Business slowed at Roden Manufacturing, creating cash flow problems for the company.
Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre promised a Conservative government would sign binding supply agreements with European allies such as Germany to supply them with natural gas while “overriding bureaucracies and other levels of government” to speed up building pipelines and LNG terminals. Poilievre delivered a speech Wednesday in Berlin that alternated between an emphatic promotion of Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG)...
Nearly half of Canadians say they would vote Liberal if an election were called today, giving Prime Minister Mark Carney’s party its largest lead since 2016. Forty-nine per cent of decided voters would vote for the Liberals, while 35 per cent would vote Conservative, according to the Postmedia-Leger poll that was taken between Feb. 27 to March 2. That’s a...
Confusing advice and on-again-off-again airport closures are complicating the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of foreigners stranded in the conflict zone around the Persian Gulf. A wide area of the Middle East is now considered too dangerous to fly, forcing some Asian-bound flights to burn more fuel diverting around the danger zone. Flight radar shows an oval-shaped area about 2,50...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada can not yet rule out military participation in the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Speaking to reporters at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra, Carney said the question around Canada's potential future involvement is a "fundamental hypothetical," adding the conflict can spread very broadly. "One can never...
In speech to a joint session of Australia's Parliament, Carney says the Commonwealth realms must band together. In an address to Australia's Parliament that was something of a love letter to the country and its people, Prime Minister Mark Carney implored citizens in both Commonwealth realms to draw closer together amid a breakdown in the established global order. Carney said...
Alberta is not ready to deal with the threat of online disinformation coming from foreign actors in a possible referendum campaign on separation this fall, according to national security experts. “Alberta is excessively vulnerable to American interference,” Jean-Christophe Boucher, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary, told Radio-Canada. Boucher, whose research focuses on foreign interference, is unequivocal...
A majority of Canadians say members of Parliament should not be allowed to cross the floor to another party and should face an “immediate” byelection if they do so, a new poll suggests. However, Wednesday’s Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News found Canadians’ displeasure with floor-crossing MPs has not hurt the overall approval for Prime Minister Mark Carney or...
Prime Minister Mark Carney got a little bit chippy when asked by a National Post reporter if he agreed with an unnamed government official who downplayed India’s role in transnational repression and foreign interference in a briefing last week.
Prime Minister Mark Carney took his middle-powers speech from the World Economic Forum earlier this year to an audience in Australia on Wednesday, where he also discussed the difficulties of negotiating with U.S. President Donald Trump. Hitting many of the same points he did in his headline-making speech in Davos, Switzerland in January, Carney told the Lowy Institute think tank...
As Prime Minister Mark Carney shifts away from unequivocal support for American airstrikes on Iran, one expert says Canada could still be drawn into the conflict. Carney on Tuesday expressed "regret" over the state of the global order and said he would have preferred to see the U.S. seek debate at the United Nations and consult with allies before launching...
Bridge owner has faced criticism for U.S. lobbying efforts. The billionaire U.S. owners of the busiest land border crossing in North America turned to a high-powered lobbying firm run by former top aides to Prime Minister Stephen Harper in recent years, records show. The Moroun family, which has controlled the Ambassador Bridge connecting Ontario and Michigan for decades, has aggressively...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says NATO needs to focus on the North as the global security environment changes and new threats emerge. Anand spoke at the Conference of Defence Associations Institute's annual gathering in Ottawa today. She said the government's "singular task" is to defend Canada's sovereignty and strengthen its alliances.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Battery company SK Battery America Inc. laid off nearly 1,000 workers at a manufacturing plant northeast of Atlanta on Friday amid automakers' changing electrification plans and uncertain consumer demand for EVs.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut and Tehran on Friday as Iran launched another wave of retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf countries. There was no sign of the war letting up on its seventh day, as U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to rule out negotiations with Iran and called for its "unconditional surrender."
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut and Tehran on Friday as Iran launched another wave of retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf countries. There was no sign of the war letting up on its seventh day, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned the U.S. air campaign against Iran would "surge dramatically."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House narrowly rejected a war powers resolution Thursday to halt President Donald Trump's attacks on Iran, an early sign of unease in Congress over the rapidly widening conflict that is reordering U.S. priorities at home and abroad.
The United States and Israel do not have a "blank cheque" in their bombing campaign in Iran, and are still bound by international law, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said on Friday, as the war in the Middle East approaches the seven-day mark.
The Trump administration is confronting mounting discontent from allies in the Persian Gulf who have complained they were not given adequate time to prepare for the torrent of Iranian drones and missiles bombarding their countries in retaliation for strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel. Officials from two Gulf countries said their governments were disappointed in the way the U.S...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed to Japan for a brief visit to one of Canada's closest partner countries as he wraps up a trip across the Indo-Pacific. "The trip is long overdue, given how significant Japan is as a partner for us in the region," Asia Pacific Foundation vice-president Vina Nadjibulla said in a recent interview. Japan is the...
In speech to a joint session of Australia's Parliament, Carney says the Commonwealth realms must band together. In an address to Australia's Parliament that was something of a love letter to the country and its people, Prime Minister Mark Carney implored citizens in both Commonwealth realms to draw closer together amid a breakdown in the established global order. Carney said...
Prime Minister Mark Carney took his middle-powers speech from the World Economic Forum earlier this year to an audience in Australia on Wednesday, where he also discussed the difficulties of negotiating with U.S. President Donald Trump. Hitting many of the same points he did in his headline-making speech in Davos, Switzerland in January, Carney told the Lowy Institute think tank...
Canada’s criminal justice system is failing its most basic test: keeping the public safe. A new report from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute reveals rising crime, falling clearance rates, and a bail system widely seen as broken. The result is a struggling justice system increasingly derailed by delays and struggling to deliver safety or accountability – eroding the trust of the Canadians...
Canada’s economic landscape is profoundly changing. A shifting trade environment, global efforts to reduce emissions and other structural trends are reshaping industries and job requirements. With these shifts, opportunities arise, but so do uneven risks and impacts. Certain communities are disproportionately susceptible to the workforce disruption these changes will bring. In this Policy Brief, we focus on mass layoffs and...
A year ago, it was not obvious that Canada–India relations could be pulled back from the brink. Diplomatic expulsions, public recriminations, and allegations of foreign interference had frozen one of Canada’s most consequential Indo-Pacific partnerships. Yet since Prime Minister Mark Carney and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the margins of the G7 summit in Kananaskis last June, a different...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
On Thursday, the Liberal government finally got around to asking ordinary Canadians how to fix the country’s premier transparency law, the Access to Information Act. The Act, dating from 1983, empowers citizens to hold governments to account through requests for internal information.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was a monster. For close to thirty years, he presided over a police state that violated human rights at home and exported terror to the world. Now he is dead, crushed by the American assault on Iran that flattened his compound and sparked a regional war. From Tehran to Toronto, thousands of Iranians are celebrating...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has finally revealed his plan to turn Canada into a weapons-exporting global mega-power. “In total, the Defence Industrial Strategy is an investment of over half a trillion dollars in Canadian security, economic prosperity, and our sovereignty,” he announced this week, promising to create over 125 thousand “high-paying careers” building weapons and otherwise supplying the Canadian military...
More than a week has passed since Israel and the United States launched a massive attack on Iran — a move the prime minister says Canada supports "with regret." How does that stance square with the vision Carney laid out in Davos? Former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations Bob Rae weighs in on the Canadian view and shares concerns...
Peter Mazereeuw speaks with Jocelyne Bourgon, a former clerk of the Privy Council who served as Jean Chrétien's right hand. They discuss Canada's move away from the United States, national unity, public service cuts, and Bourgon's new book, A Public Servant's Voice: Through the Words of the First Woman Clerk of the Privy Council of Canada.
Within hours of the US and Israeli attack on Iran and the assassination of that country's leader, Mark Carney was out with his initial thoughts on the conflict. Since then there's been some clarification on what he meant but there's also been some concern in Liberal circles. Chantal and Bruce have their thoughts on this and a lot more on...
On federal comms in disarray. On Poilievre 3.0. And U.SA. vs. Globe and Mail In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on March 6th, 2026, your hosts agree at the outset to avoid talking about Alberta for once, because Jen really needs a break. Fortunately, there was plenty else happening this week.
